photo by: Dmitry Martirosov/Journal-World

Bipartisan board of election workers, split into two teams of three, are auditing ballots from randomly selected precincts in Douglas County inside the Douglas County Elections Office on Monday, Nov. 9, 2026.

Election Day is over, but the process of certifying the votes has just begun in Douglas County — including in one close race for a House district that lies within the county’s boundaries.

On Monday morning, workers at the Douglas County Elections Office started the process of their routine post-election audit, as well as a close-race audit in the 117th state House district, one of six such audits announced by Secretary of State Scott Schwab last week.

Under state law, all 105 counties in Kansas are required to conduct post-election audits in a randomly selected 1% of all precincts. The close-race audits, meanwhile, are triggered when a race is decided by 1% or less of the total votes cast; these are done in addition to post-election audits and include a review of 10% of precincts in each county for that race.

The six races in Kansas that Schwab announced would undergo a close-race audit are for the following offices:

• Governor

• Secretary of State

• Attorney General

• State House District 27

• State House District 40

• State House District 117

The Associated Press on Friday declared Chris Mann the winner in the race for attorney general. The race for secretary of state, Kansas’ top election official, between Republican Pat Proctor and Democrat Jennifer Day has an 8,817-vote difference in favor of Proctor, according to the unofficial results. Cindy Holscher, the Democratic candidate for governor, has declared victory over Ty Masterson, her Republican opponent, though a winner has not been officially announced. Holscher was leading Masterson by 7,644 votes as of Monday afternoon, according to the unofficial results.

photo by: Dmitry Martirosov/Journal-World

A bipartisan board of election worker audits ballots from randomly selected precincts in Douglas County inside the Douglas County Elections Office on Monday, Nov. 9, 2026.

photo by: Dmitry Martirosov/Journal-World

Bipartisan board of election workers audit ballots from randomly selected precincts in Douglas County inside the Douglas County Elections Office on Monday, Nov. 9, 2026.

District 117, which lies along the southern border of Lawrence and covers a large portion of southern Eudora, had been won by Democrat Brandon Holland last Tuesday by 142 votes, according to the unofficial results. An equipment operator from Baldwin City, Holland defeated Republican incumbent Adam Turk, a business owner and military veteran from Shawnee.

Douglas County has 102 precincts, and six of those are in District 117. On Monday, County Clerk Jamie Shew said the audit would be conducted for all six precincts for the district. He said it would be easier than looking at just the 10% that is required by law.

“If we’re going to pull the bags, let’s just go ahead and pull the bags,” Shew told the Journal-World, referring to the bags where the ballots are stored. District 117 had fewer than 2,500 votes cast in Douglas County; the rest are in Johnson County, which is conducting its own audit for the district’s remaining 22 precincts.

Post-election audits are conducted manually by bipartisan election boards, who hand-count the ballots to ensure they match the tally counted by tabulators on election night. State law mandates that such audit include one federal race, one statewide race, one legislative race and one constitutional amendment, if any are proposed.

The process can be time-consuming and largely depends on the number of votes cast, the size of the precincts and the number of workers in each election board. Douglas County had two three-person teams conducting the audits on Monday, but Shew said that a third might be added.

Close-race audits must be completed and must get approval from the Secretary of State’s office before the county canvass meets. The election canvass for Douglas County is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 16, which is the deadline set by the Secretary of State’s office. Once completed, the State Board of Canvassers will meet as the final step to certify the election before official results are posted on the Secretary of State’s website.